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Undergraduates with family income below $200k will be tuition-free at MIT

news.mit.edu

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Re: Undergraduates with family income below $200k will be tuition-free at MIT

#201

Post by awb »

TheJoeMan wrote: post #32

This is a great step in the right direction. I can't speak directly for MIT, but there are issues with how these programs don't apply to parents with small family businesses. My parents had a small business, with my father taking home a salary of $XX,XXX. Duke University used the business assets to determine the EFC (expected family contribution) of literally 90% of the salary. Essentially saying to sell off the fami…

On the flip side, it’s possible to sell a business for 7+ figures and then have little to no income in subsequent years in which case quite wealthy families would qualify for assistance.

Re: Undergraduates with family income below $200k will be tuition-free at MIT

#202

Post by nurumaik »

jedberg wrote: post #176

Or, crazy idea, have the government pay all tuition up front for everyone and then collect an extra .5% on your income tax for every semester you attend (or .33% for every quarter). Obviously you'd have to put some limits on what colleges can charge to get paid from that pool of money. Then you can't go broke from debt because it's a percent of your income, but it's also not "free" to address those who have concerns…

Make this .5% go directly to the university. Will incentivize universities to teach more useful skills

Re: Undergraduates with family income below $200k will be tuition-free at MIT

#203

Post by zipy124 »

spacebanana7 wrote: post #183
jedberg wrote: post #176

Or, crazy idea, have the government pay all tuition up front for everyone and then collect an extra .5% on your income tax for every semester you attend (or .33% for every quarter). Obviously you'd have to put some limits on what colleges can charge to get paid from that pool of money. Then you can't go broke from debt because it's a percent of your income, but it's also not "free" to address those who have concerns…

I actually quite like the system we have in the UK. Graduates pay roughly 9% of their income above £27k towards debt repayment, and the remaining balance is written off after 30 years. Typical tuition fees are just over £9k per year. This strikes a nice balance between encouraging people to carefully consider alternative non-university careers whilst also not preventing too many people from not being able to afford i…

It would be a good system if the interest rate on the loan wasn't absolutely insane.

Re: Undergraduates with family income below $200k will be tuition-free at MIT

#206

Post by albedoa »

switchbak wrote: post #165
s1artibartfast wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the entire point of these assessments to look at total assets, and not just annual income? I dont think this was an oversight or mistake. I think the expectation was that yes, people should sell assets if they have them .

Should they also cut their kidneys out and sell those too? For someone not in your system, the expectations that seem normal to you sound absolutely insane to others.

Does MIT include the market value of their kidneys in their assessment? You might have lost track of what is being discussed here.

Anyway no, they should not cut their kidneys out and sell them.

Re: Undergraduates with family income below $200k will be tuition-free at MIT

#208

Post by shiroiushi »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #132
nuancebydefault wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still, I do not get it. Why would this competition / exclusivity rule be so much less prevalent in large parts of Europe? I don't want to say Europe is without problems, but I think this kind of legislation, together with social security in general, is a clear example of how it can be handled more efficient and fair for most people.

Good question. I wonder if labor competition in Europe is less reliant on University names and reputation? IT could also have to do with cultural difference is what students look for in a university. My understanding is that most universities in Europe look more like US bare bones commuter schools, opposed to an all inclusive recreational experience. The top ranked university in Europe is Oxford, which educates more…

>The top ranked university in Europe is Oxford, which educates more than twice as many students as MIT with half the budget. I doubt this is because Oxford is cutting corners on educational curriculum.

Maybe, maybe not. It could just be from cost-of-living differences: salaries for many jobs (particularly highly-educated ones) pay a fraction outside the US what they do inside the US. How much are Oxford professors and staff getting paid compared to the ones at MIT (which is Boston, which is a very high cost-of-living city for the US)?

Re: Undergraduates with family income below $200k will be tuition-free at MIT

#209

Post by foobarian »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #140
currymj wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

actually ETHZ and EPFL are very good and highly ranked, and have cheap tuition and open enrollment. i don’t know how they do it. I guess things just work better in Switzerland.

I was speaking to the US situation, and agree most European schools are quite cheap in comparison. Not only in tuition, but in terms of their budgets; US schools spend 4-5X as much per student- so it isnt just about state funding.

Guessing those schools can't provide access to the exclusive social network you get by restricting admissions.

Re: Undergraduates with family income below $200k will be tuition-free at MIT

#210

Post by shiroiushi »

nuancebydefault wrote: post #112
bobmcnamara wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roger Freeman, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan's education advisor, was afraid that educated voters would turn the United States towards communism. One of Ronald Reagan's campaign promises was dismantling or breaking the department of education, similar to what he had done to California's state universities by limiting their budgets and moving the burden of tuition to students. At the time this was quite popular as i…

A few weeks ago apparently, the 'promise less taxes->everybody happy' magic spell has once again worked.

Well hopefully Trump and his DoGE head Musk will eliminate the Department of Education soon, so that most public universities will have to shut their doors and Americans can stop wasting money on college education. Then all the college students can go to work at meatpacking plants and farms to replace all the illegal immigrants that are about to be deported. This will definitely help America re-assert itself as a world power and a great place to live.
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